When Precopia asked what he was being arrested for, police officers said, “something along the lines of, ‘don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about’,” his lawyer, Rick Flores, told ABC News in America.

He was charged with first-degree felony burglary of a habitation, with intent to commit additional felonies, according to the police affidavit.

The offence was punishable by up to 99 years if convicted, Flores added.

Cops finally dropped the charges against Precopia nine months after his arrest when his lawyer took the alibi evidence - the selfie - to Bell County prosecutors.

His accuser's identity is not being made public because she is not being charged with a crime.

She would later admit to Temple police that she reported Precopia because she had a rocky relationship with him several years earlier.

SLIP OF THE CAMERA

MURDER IN THE WILDERNESS

“Most of the time, we deal with grey matters,” Flores said, adding, “it’s not normally black or white. But this is one of those cases where I could definitely prove he did not commit this offence.”

Flores said that the family has not been contacted by Precopia’s accuser, and that he believed she “staged it all”, including smashing a vase and throwing items around her home to make it look like there had been a struggle.

The young man’s mum said the arrest had severely affected her son, and that “he’s not the same kid he was a year and a half ago, which breaks my heart.”